Kenyans Challenged To “Stay In” And “Reach Out” During Covid-19

Leading Strategic Communications Agency, Engage Burson Cohn & Wolfe in partnership with the Public Relations Society of Kenya (PRSK) and the Association of Public Relations and Communications Management Firms (APReCoM) have launched a campaign appealing to Kenyans to reach out to their friends, family, relatives, colleagues, business partners, and all their associates as they continue heeding to the government’s call to stay at home and keep an effective social distance.

In the campaign dubbed “#StayINreachOut,” the communication experts are urging each Kenyan to maintain a circle of five (5) people that he/she is to reach out to daily from the comfort of their homes.

“The #StayInReachOut initiative aims to move people through difficult times by just making contact and showing they care. Very simply it asks each one of us to identify a personal circle of contacts and commit to reaching out to them regularly, while we are all staying at home,” says Engage BCW Managing Partner Desiree Gomes.

“We are committing to staying IN, but also to reaching OUT – to our colleagues, working remotely, perhaps feeling isolated and disconnected from their team members; to our clients, some uncertain how to navigate their communications needs; to people in our networks facing daily challenges of keeping businesses open and revenue coming in; to our friends in ‘lockdown’; and our vulnerable family members with health fears.”

According to Public Relations Society of Kenya President Dr. Wilfred Marube, the current isolation and quarantine measures put in place in the wake of preventing the spread of Covid-19 pandemic could lead some people into mental health issues like stress and depression, hence more reasons as to why people should continue socializing as proposed under the #StayINreachOut campaign.

“There are thousands of Kenyans currently grappling with the effects of job losses, others are staring at pay cuts, business shutdowns while others are worried about being lonely, and the chances of them contracting the infectious disease,” said Dr. Marube.

“This global pandemic has changed our daily routines including limiting physical interaction and social distancing. In these challenging and unprecedented times there has never been more need to reach out,” He added.

In line with APReCoM’ s vision which is ‘to be the catalyst for credible communication that empowers decision making’ Okoth Obado, APReCoM Chairman welcomed the #stayINreachOutCovin-19 campaign noting that it was  relevant, coming at a time when human liberties and freedoms were being curtailed to unprecedented  levels and therefore causing social, psychological and economic upheavals to the detriment of society

“As APReCoM, we fully support the #stayINreachOutCovin-19 campaign that is designed to encourage us to deliberately reach out to a sphere of family, friends, and colleagues even as we keep away from them to maintain the social attribute of our nature as humans”, said Obado. He urged those participating in the #stayINreachOutCovin-19 campaign to ensure that while reaching out, they should only share information that is factual and thereof beneficial to the recipients during these tough times.

An engaging “nomination video” concept, using a combination of the globally recognized elbow bump, that has become the new handshake, with the physical gesture of reaching out will encourage people to share the message.

“We are challenging others to join this movement, sharing #stayINreachOUT in their spheres of influence in ways that are human, empathetic and relevant right now.” Explained Desiree.

The challenge will run across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram where Kenyans are urged to post a video of their physical gesture of staying in and reaching out and also tagging their 5 selected people in their network.